My turtles keep fighting! what should i do!?

Question

i have two pet turtles, i've had for about 4 years and the other i just bought 2 weeks ago. so he's pretty small. the oldest one keeps biting the young one and now hes takin bits out of his shell! i dont know what to do! not only dose the older one beat up the turtle but when i give them fish he kills them all and dosent eat them. dose any one have any idea y my turtle dose this? he's in a 75 gallon tank, i always keep it clean, i feed them every day and i have the heat lamp on during the day . i cant find anything out, and the pet store around here dosent know much about turtles. so please can any one help?

Answer 1

get a BIGGER, WIDER tank. enough so 3 turtles have there own "room"they should stop then.

Answer 2

Fighting Turtles / Biting Turtles/ Bickering Pestering Turtles
==============================================================

One of the most common questions I get is that someone has several turtles
that they usually got as juveniles. They lived together happiliy for up to
several years, and then one turtle (often but not always a male) starts
biting the others.


While young and juvenile turtles live together in harmony, once they
enter puperty, their macho side comes out, and they not only have to show each
other who is the best and strongest, they only have to be as rumbunctious
as possible towards their chosen mate.

Usually, an encounter starts out with some kind of show-off: dancing around
each other, waving front-paws, gaping. This is the same for males being
macho and males trying to impress females. If there is no resolution, or
if the female is not responding, the next step is nudging or biting.
Injuries are rare, since the "attacked" turtle will turn such that its
side of the shell faces the attacker, or it will simply run away and hide.

These kinds of behaviours are also part of courtship behavior, and males
will often bite females on their paws and neck to get them into the mood.
An uninterested female will run away or bite back. Since the females are
usually bigger than the males, a female can easily put a pushy male in
its place. An interested female will, after playing coy for a while, give
in to the male's advances. Turtle copulation requires cooperation; unless
the female is interested, the male won't get anywhere.

In the wild, if one turtle starts pestering another, the weaker one will
eventually run or swim away and hide. Turtles are not the fighting kind,
and most of their fighting is really just bluffing and show. However,
in captivity, where turtles are often kept in small enclosures--any indoor
enclosure is too small by some measure--and there are no good hiding
places, a bigger, stronger turtle can persue and snap at a smaller, weaker
turtle until there are injuries.
Often, what starts out as just a little bit of showing off, will later turn
into more serious chasing and biting. After all, the turtles really don't
have much else to do in a tank!

In other words, the primary cause of injuries from fighting is CROWDING.

So, what are you to do?

* Unless you can provide a very large enclosure, you may consider only getting
one turtle.

* Don't crowd turtles. Give them the largest enclosure you can provide.

* Keep turtles well fed. However, this can lead to obesity, and then you have to
put them on a diet. So this only works some.

* Give the turtles plenty of plants, rock caves, and other hide places to get away.

* Give the turtles stuff to chew on, like carrots, other veggies, and a cuttle fish
bone.

* Build a separator screen into the tank that will keep the turtles away from each
other.

* Get a second tank, or give away one of your turtles.

* Build a pond or buy a large tub and move your turtles outdoors, at least for
summer. This is good for them anyway!

If you have an injured turtle:

1) Evaluate the situation. How badly is the animal hurt? Do you need to see a vet?
See: Veterinarians: When Is It Time to See One?

2) Separate the injured animal from your other turtles.

3) Keep the injured animal in a very clean, warm environment. Warmth helps
turtles heal, because their immune system works better if they are warmer.

4) If the injury is an open wound, or if a piece of shell is broken off,
keep the turtle outside the water for a few nights (put it into the water
during the day) in a warm, non-drafty box. Drying out will help heal.

If the injury is minor, you should see improvement within a day or two.
Complete healing can take weeks, though. Be patient.

Answer 3

Turtles housed together should be roughly the same size. If not, the potential for injury is good!

Turtles are territorial. Think of it as being the same as "some guy" showing up in your house. You probably wouldn't be too friendly if you came home and found a stranger sleeping in your bed.

These turtles need to be separated. If you can't get another aquarium right now, get some egg crate lighting fixture from Home Depot. It's about $12 and makes a good, although not attractive, aquarium divider. Water flows through it easily allowing your filter to work.

Another suggestion would be to rearrange everything in the tank so the aggressive turtle doesn't recognize the place as his territory. This has worked for me, but my turtles are close in size...this is less of an option for turtles of differing sizes.

Giving your turtles LOTS of space is another good idea. If you came home and some weirdo was sleeping in the room down the hall, you wouldn't like it, but you'd feel better about it than if he was sleeping in your room. Again, this may not be an option for you until your smaller turtle catches up with your larger one in size.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

Separate them!!!! The older one doesn't know whats going on and the younger one is probably stressed to death. May sound stupid but 4 years is a long time for an animal and he probably doesn't even know what that other little creature is except his enemy. The little one can stay in a small enclosure until you figure out a better place but its obvious that neither one is happy in their current situation.

Answer 5

are they tortunija maybe the big one is just training the other one. That is Way he kills the fish and dose not eat them. You should release the older on after a will into the free world. you should not really hold them if they are old(young).

Answer 6

i'm no longer an expert on turtles regardless of the undeniable fact that it kinda sounds like Bob desires to have intercourse with George. and what's the handle the names? they're the two woman turtles with boy turtle names? possibly there's a deeper question you will possibly be able to desire to ask. :)

Answer 7

Your turtles are probably fighting for their teratory and trying to get the other one out of the picture. The best thing to do is keep them in seperate tanks/cages.

Answer 8

Are they turtles or tortoises? Tortoises don't always like each other. The big one is picking on the little one because it wants it to go away, but there's nowhere for it to go. You might want to put a tank separator in it so they can't get to each other.

Answer 9

I've never had a turtle but.........maybe you can buy a new tank and put the other one in there before it causes the small turtle death!

Answer 10

Bring them to some kind of pet anger management therapist. It should only cost around $1200 per turtle. Aren't your turtles worth it?

Answer 11

I see some turtle soup in the future, what ever one you think would taste better. Or if you don't like soup you could have turtle on a stick or BBQ turtle.